This time the aunty didn't dare to have any expectation over the animals anymore. Although all of them were intelligent, they were like naughty little toddlers; their motivations were elsewhere. They did not even paid any attention when she was explaining just now. It pricked her heart a little, but she did her best not to show it.

She poured the watery white coconut meat mesh into the pot lined with the one and only baby napkin she had. She then gathered all the edges and twisted them together. White milky liquid came out of the twisted napkin and drip down into the cooking pot again. Hana added some plain water to the dried mesh again, kneaded with her right hand vigorously, and redo the same action again to squeeze out all the leftover watery coconut milk. 

Slowly, the fragrant milky liquid filled up to half of the five-liter cooking pot. Without even doing anything, the coconut milk had already pulled the curious gaze of the little animals to it.

It looks just like Mommy's milk but smelled different! Kuro pondered. He had silently finish up all the milk expressed out by his mistress twice daily without sharing a drop with Shiro. It was his secret for enhancing the telepathic connection between him and his mistress.

Although Hana knew of Kuro's actions, she just pretended not to notice. After all, if the milk wasn't consumed within four hours in room temperature, it'll be spoilt. Evidently, her other pet didn't express his dissatisfaction, so it should be okay. If they started to fight over it, then she would've asked them to share. 

Truthfully, she was glad her little snake appreciate the milk. Hana just attributed Kuro's gluttony as something normal. She knew during the Indian celebration in her hometown, her Indian friends will visit the temple and offer a bowl of milk to the snakes living at the temple. It was even the same in Tamil movies. So, Hana had formed a preconception that snakes like milk (1).

Once her coconut milk base was done, she gave the leftover to her new friend, Ara. She took out six out of eleven live freshwater prawns from within a suspended water bubble beside Ara while marveling on its mechanism. 

I really need to take good care of my relationship with this fish. She is very  useful. After all, where can you find a suspended water tank to store your fresh seafood like this? She made a mental note to ask help from her friend to address the issue of how to keep her other seafood inside her cave later.

Hana cut off the tip of the shrimp's head while they were alive and remove the long beard together nonchalantly just like an experienced butcher. After that, she stabbed the back of each shrimp and pulled out their gut cleanly after making a long incision. She didn't de-shell the shrimps as she liked them to stay intact. 

It was slightly gruesome, but she had done the same thing at home a million times until her hands worked on instinct. The pitiful prawns struggled for a while before they died on a clean sheet of banana leaf where Hana left them. Once the prawns were done, she walked up her homemade shelf and took one canister of pretreated bamboo shoot filled bamboo.

All ingredients are here! Now let's start cooking some spicy turmeric coconut soup!

Hana placed the coconut milk containing pot on the makeshift campfire stone stove after reducing the ferocity of the fire. If not, her coconut milk soup will turn grainy as part of the milk could turn into coconut oil from the excessive heat. While stirring gently nonstop with a bamboo strip, she put in the ingredients on the tava plate one by one.

Julienned onions, galangal tuber, turmeric tuber, a slice of asam keping and bruised lemongrasses entered the slowly simmering pot one after another. Gradually, the creamy coconut soup turned yellowish from the addition of turmeric tuber slices. 

Hana called for Shiro to help her stir while she carefully made a small incision on one gem-like green chili. The translucent quality of the chili gave the illusion of bright green liquid present within the chili. Due to that, Hana who used to pound a handful of chili pepper for a pot of soup to max out the heat readjusted her method out of caution. Once the incision was done, she tried to squeeze the 'juice' out.

To her surprise, some juice did come out (2). She immediately dripped it into the main cooking pot and chuck in the rest of the chili in. A plume of smoke wafted out as a spicy sensation clouded everyone's eyes!

The little animals were so shocked as they made quite a ruckus! Whiny sounds interlaced with hissings and loud panicked chirps echoed inside the spacious cave. It was like a poison AOE attack (3)!

"Relax, relax, guys! It's nothing." Hana tried her best to calm everyone down although her eyes were watery too. "This is just a small price to pay when one wanted to eat good food. Sambal making fume is much worse than this. It's just shows that Markisah's chili is very potent! Excellent grade! Thank you again, Markisah! Come come, you guys go out first to get some fresh air. Once you're okay, you can come in again."

Hana laughed in her heart while observing the animals' panic antics. 

She ushered the animals out and returned into the cave to complete her cooking. She seasoned the whole pot of soup with half cube of chicken stock and a generous pinch of salt. After a while, she tasted the concoction and readjusted again.

Once it achieved her intended level of sourness, spiciness and hotness, she poured in a canister of thinly sliced bamboo shoots she prepared yesterday.

"Stir..stir..stir.."

The aunty's hand never stopped stirring the yellow tinged soup gently. Tiny bubbles could be seen at the edges of the pot. Once a while, Hana used a stick to prod the build-up of fire beneath her pot to stop it from getting too strong. Madam Shaza once said that while cooking 'masak lemak' (4), one couldn't be distracted and stop stirring under a low fire so that the soup will be smooth and creamy.

"Finally! The main ingredient!" Hana hummed under her breath while moving her head to the imaginary song in her mind (although it was loud and clear to her pets, they were thankful that it was just random humming this time). While one hand kept on stirring the milky yellow soup, another one fetched the prawn and put them inside the pot one by one. She then sprinkled in a bit more salt to adjust again once the balance was off.

A sweet seafood aroma permeated the cave intermingled with the previous spiciness. Hana herself didn't realized it as she was immersed in all the cooking fume. Outside, Kuro and Shiro took a deep breath and sighed while thinking, how could something that smelled like poison would be so alluring this time. Immediately, they re-entered the cave only to see Hana scooping the soup with a ladle made from connecting a bamboo stick to a coconut shell. The cooking pot was already placed on the cave floor layered with several random young leaves.

"Hahhhhh.. Perfect..." The aunty sighed with emotion after a small sip. There was no need to adjust again. The mixture of tastes had reached the level of harmony she was looking for. She can't believe she had cooked a proper dish in the wilderness. The only thing lacking was a plate of rice to complement the dish.

Mom, is it done? Shiro's pleasant androgynous voice had a rare hopefulness to it. 

"It's done guys! Everyone, come over!"

Hana cleaned up three more halved coconut shells and some banana leaves. First, she placed the leaves in front of Kuro, Shiro and Ara. Then, she placed the three coconut shell bowls on the leaf, but a little bit to the side. Hana scooped some bamboo shoots together with the soup and poured it into each coconut shell bowls after she placed a braised prawn each on the banana leaves.

The unhappy Markisah raised up her feathered black highlighted wings. "Hana, how about me?" she chirped with grievance. The coconuts and chili did come from her, why didn't she get one?

"Patient, patient, little one." Hana smiled. Even without being translated, Hana knew what all the unhappy shrill chirps were for.

Hana choose one large bamboo pole and started to trim it into smaller parts languidly. In a matter of seconds, she had made two identical bowls! They looked like steam buns baskets.

"One for you, one for me." She placed a bamboo bowl filled with bamboo shoots and thick yellowish soup in front of Markisah. She knew the little bird won't be partaking any meat, hence she just served the little one with a bowl of bamboo shoots.

Finally, the aunty ladled a bowl of bamboo shoots-filled soup inside another bowl and placed it in front of her. After that, she took one gigantic soup-braised prawn for herself. She sighed. These ingredients could've easily costed me a fortune. What great natural treasures. These little ones didn't know their worth. Gently, she blew on the soup's surface and slowly slurped the steaming hot soup with great satisfaction. After a second, her face turned slightly red, but she just sighed again in relaxation and continue. 

Unknown to Hana, she was the one who didn't understand the true value of the spiritual herbs she had wantonly used in her cooking.

Once all the animals saw Hana had started eating without obvious repercussion, they started to dig in cautiously. Shiro and Kuro had no doubt with Hana's cooking, only a little worry about the addition of the 'chili'. Hence, they immediately pounced on the delicious-looking braised prawn in front of them once Hana looked just fine.

...

Author’s Note:

(1) snakes like milk = scientifically, it’s not true. But seeing them in Tamil movies is true...haha

(2) some juice did come out = take note that, real life chilies don’t have ‘juice’ suspended inside. It is totally safe to cut them and use (laughing)

(3) poison AOE attack = to older readers who might not come across this term, this is a game term, “Area of Effect”, which meant it’s a widespread attack targeting on multiple recipients by engaging towards the surroundings area

(4) 'masak lemak' = It is the Malaysian name for this dish. All cooking made from coconut milk-turmeric base is known as ‘masak lemak’, this one should be masak lemak cili api (bird’s eye chili), rebung (bamboo shoots), & udang (prawn). Lemak means fat, as in fat (coconut milk) from the coconut. If we cooked the coconut milk for prolonged period of time at high heat, we will get oil out of it. That’s how old people prepare oil themselves for cooking before the commercial oil come to be.